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That’s like saying, there is a point where we have to abandon language. Society redefines itself though its adjectives.

One of the reasons I adore your writing is that you point blank challenge progressive assumptions about what constitutes activism, feminism, etc. Your hatred of the “It Gets Better” campaign was crucial to the dialogue about it, because it caused people to pause and reflect on what message was being sold, exactly (well, I hope it made them pause).

But you fall into the jingoistic nonsense of “defy all labels! History is now!” that disengages the issue from how people actually live.

And while I’m not raging at you here, I’m at the point where I want to scream “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” at any activist who eschews labels under the banner of “freeing society from restrictions”. They display not only a profound lack of understanding of linguists but also no concept of history or of how cultural change is made.

It is not made in a vacuum. It is made slowly as people change their adjectives; the “It Gets Better” campaign WAS flawed, certainly; but it *existed* which represented a huge advancement. Only through it’s existence can we take the next step of questioning it, moving forward in the discussion, and creating the next cultural change. Which will be just as flawed, just in different ways. And we’ll learn from that, too.

Likewise, “ethical slut” is empowering to many, many women who have only ever been shamed sexually by the term slut. You can’t take a middle class, repressed girl (random example) and tell her to “rise above” the word slut. That has no context for her; whereas “ethical slut” makes her question society and her own precepts of what ethics are. Only at that point can she grasp the arguments you have made here. Don’t denigrate that necessary process because you want to be contrary.

Don’t get me wrong; I adore your contrariness. It’s necessary. But in this case, it’s counter productive; you take away the adjective, you take away the ability of people to change.